Roses By Moonlight
by RoZiLuVzSeSsHo
Summary: ReDone! front of her was a rose garden, washed with moonlight and heavy with the mingled perfume of many flowers. Hedge roses, laden with blssoms, formed a thick wall around the garden. At the single gap in the wall, just in front of Kikyo, two climbing


RoZiLuVzSeSho-hey sesshy wats that thing on ur shoulder?

Sesshomaru-It's my tail you wench!

RoZiLuVzSeSho-eyes wateru dont have to be soo mean u kno

KoolaidSmile- Grrrrr Sesshomaru look wat u did...hey come back here...i gonna kill u.chases sesshomaru wit a chainsaw

RoZiLuVzSeSho- while koolaid is killin sesshy on wit the story..Looks At Koolaid...Koolaid dont kill him...he didnt mean it...!

Everybody- Idiots!

Disclaimer: Dear mom, I Didnt steal the cookies out of the cookie jar i swear... it wasnt me...ahhh dont hit me ...ouch stop that.I'll report you to DCYF...oh I didnt know you's were listen to me...Anyways I dont Own Inuyasha but I can if you help me back Rumiko Takahashi into a dark alley then I will Beat her upside her head with a frying pan then stuff her body in the nears garbage can and you could dress me up like her and then i would own Inuyasha and Cuddle wit Sesshomaru. Mwhahahahahahahahaha. ( My bestest, crazyest, loopest,slowest,out of her mind, friend, KoolaidSmile help me wit dis disclaimer just a bit)

_**For Kikyo Lovers But Not For Koolaid Smile**_

...Roses ByMoonLight ...

Light and the raucous noise of a heavy-metal band spilled from the long, open windows onto the patio outside, overwheming the pale reflected gleam of the full moon and drowning the hum of the cicadas. Even from halfway down the long drive, where she leaned against the hood of her mother'sLexus, Kikyo could feel the bass beat thumping in her bones. Kagome's music, Kagome's friends, Kagome's party. It was a good thing they had no near neighbors to complain. Not that anyone would have. No one but Kikyo ever complained about the outrageous things her younger sister did.

_I don't mind Dad throwing her a party,_ Kikyo told her herself for the hundredth time. _Really, I don't. But the way she swept in, like the prodigal daughter coming home...yes, I mind that. And--Oh, I don't know. Why can't things be simple?_

She looked down at the half-inch worm of ash on the end of her cigarette and grimaced. _My only vice, and i don't even enjoy it._ Still, it was a good excuse to avoid the party; Most of Kag's friends were into clean air and healthy food. She dropped the cigarette and ground the tip into the cement, then tilted her head back to stare at the sky. The moon hung overhead like an old dime worn smooth and shiny. _Almost midnight. I wonder how much longer they'll go on. Dawn, probably. Can I spend another five hours smoking? I don't think I have that many cigarettes._

The Music trailed off in a seies of erratic crahses. After a moment's blessed silence, it began again, loud and indecipherable eben at this distance. kikyo sighed and puched away from the Lexus. Maybe if she walked farther down the drive the noise wouldn't bother her so much.

" Kikyo."

Startled, she turned. " hello, Mother. Did Dad send you--"--_to get me to put a token appearance at his favorite daughter's home-from-prep-school bash? _"--to talk to me?"

"No." Her motherr's voice was quiet and level, as always; Kikyo almost lost the reply in a rattle of drumbeats.

"

"I came out to smoke." The words sounded sullen even to her own ears. Defiantly, she fumbled for a cigarette.She almost dropped it twice before she got it lit.

"Of course, dear."

Kikyo looked sharply axross the hood of the car. Her mother's espression--or at least as much of it as Kikyo could distinguish in te dim light--was as polite abd nonjudgemetal as her voice had been. But she was always polite and nonjudgemetal.

The drums erpyed again, with the wail of a highly augmented electric guitar as counterpoint. When the sound subsided to a more mormal level, Kikyo's mother said mildly, "It's a bit noisy, isn't it? Kikyo..."

_She's going to ask me to go back in and pretend I'm as glad to see Kag as everyone else is. I's rather stay here and pretend to chain-smoke. "_ what?"

"I'm afraid I haven't done as well for you as I ought."

Speechless, Kikyo stared. Darkness and moon shadows combined with her mother's habitual reserve to make her expression unreadable. After a moment, the calm voice continued, " It's late to be thinking this, I know. But when you go off to college next fall, I'd like to think..." She paused, looking up at the house.

Not knowing what to say, Kikyo took a long pull on her cigarette. As she blew a thin stream of smoke that frayed quikly into nothingness, her mother began to speak again.

" I grew up poor, Kikyo. Dirt poor. My father ran off when I was four and never came back. Sometimes I think I can just remember him. Mama had nothing but three babys to raise. This" --she made a sweeping gesture that took in the manicured grounds, the graceful curve of even the driveway, the lexus, the house, and somehow even the heavy-metal band and party inside--" this was my dream, then. Money lots of money, aand a man who wouldn't leave me and his children, no matter what."

Kikyo shifted uneasily. She's heard the story many times; her mother had never made a secret of her background. But this time there was a hard edge to the tale that she's nenver noticed before. " Mother, what are you trying to--"

Tonight is a sort of anniversary for me," her mother went on without a seening to hear. " On this night, Twenty-one years ago, ZI started on my way to all this."

" I thought you met Dad in September."

"Oh, that...Yes. I did. September first, twenty-one years ago this fall." She smiled in the moonlight; then the smiled faded. "but tonight is the real anniversary, though I've never told anyone. This was my dream, and when I had the opportunity to make it happen, I snatched it. I never looked beyond it, never thought there might be other dreams..."

" Mother, are you and Dad.. I mean, aren't you happy?"

"Happy enough, dear, and it is the life I chose." She looked at Kikyo. "And no, your father and I aren't contemplating a divorce, if that's what you're frowning about."

" Good." The strength of her reaction surprised her.

Her mother turned toward the house once more. "Kikyo, I'd like you to meet someone, and I'm sure she'll come tonight. Almost sure. It's a seventh year. And if you are given a choice...be careful, be wise. Don't rush to pick one dream before you've even looked at the others."

" I don't understand."

" You will." Her mother looked at her watch. " It's five to midnight. I must go in. You will stay?"

"Good. Good night, dear. I''k see you in the monring."

Kikyo watched her mother walk up the drive to the house. _I wish I knew what that was all about. Well, at least now I have a good excuse to avoid the party._ She flicked her cigarette and watched the live sparks scatter on the summer breeze. The band stopped. A moment later, a breathless, overramplifed voice said something about the end of the set; in anotherfew seconds, Kagome and her friends would be piling out onto the patio. Kikyo flicked her cigarette again, for the pleasure of watching the sparks, then dropped it, stepped on the tip to put it out, walked toward the back of the Lexus. No sense in making it easy for them to spot her. Suddenly, she stopped

Behind the car stood a woman. She looked very litter older than Kkyo and she was tall and slim as a model. Her hair was black and unfashionably long and straight, like Kikyo's, with a silver sheen of moonlight across it like a veil. Her face and features were almost classis, saved from a boring perfection by a chin that was a trifle too pionted and dark eyes a hair too widely set. She wore a silk dress whose flowing and deceptively simple lines proclaimed it the work of an expensive designer.

" You are Kikyo, the eldest daughter of this house." The woman's voice was quiet and full of music, and Kikyo was instantly certain that she was not one of Kag's crown. In thisty years, one or two of them might learn such self-possession, but none of them had it now.

"Kikyo felt a stad of envy. Quashing it firmly, she answered "yes. You must be Mother's friend."

"Your Mother spoke of me?"

" She only said that she hoped you'd you'd come tonight and that she wanted me to meet you." Kikyo hesitated, but something made her add," and that I should be carefull

" Ah." The woman smiled. " Good advice in many circumstances." She studied Kikyo briefly, then nodded. " Her blood runs true in you"

" Most people say I look like my father."

" I was not speakingof your looks. Come; walk with me. I would learn more of you."

Laughter drifted down from the house as they stared down the drive. Kikyo glanced back and grimaced in spite of herself.

" Your sister's guests give you a no pleasure," the woman said. " Do you dislike them? Or is it her involvement that disturbs you?"

"No, it's not like that at all," Kikyo said. "kagome is --Kagome, that all. She doesn't think how things are for other people. She just does what she wants, and it always works. She's.. she's like the youngest child in a fairly tale, the one who goes off on a quest riding a goat and carrying ten copper pennies, and comes back with the steed of the North Wind, the apples of the sun, and keys to six kingdows."

"And you?"

"Oh, I'm the envious older sister, who gets killed by a evil basterd named Naraku." She had meant for it to sound lighthearted; it came out harsh, almost bitter. Hastily, she added, " Kag's my sister; Im glad things go so well for her, I really am. I just wish, sometimes..." She couldn't brig herself to finish the sentence. _And why am I telling her all this, anyway?_

" I see. But you are too wise to take her walking on the cold sea strand."

" Kag's hair is not long enough to string a harp. Anyway, the way her life goes, the harper would pull her out long before she drowned." Kikyo shrugged. " I've always known that Kagome got the looks and luck in this family; I just have to make with the brains even though everybody says she looks just like me."

The woman turned to look at Kikyo and after a moent said, " You do yourself injustice as to beauty. As for fortune, that may change, if it has not already."

"You sound like my mother. Not that I don't appesciate the kind words."

The woman laughed, a silvery, Musical sound. " You are courteous indeed. It has been long and long since any named me kind." She studied Kikyo again, then half nodded to herself. " such courtesy deserves reward. Come walk with me among the roses, and let what may be, be."

" Roses?" Kikyo stopped. " I'm afraid there aren't any. Mother says they're too much trouble."

" Does she."

" Well, they have to be sprayed all the time or they get black spot or mildew or something. And they need a lot of pruning, and it's a nuisance.So mother won't have any in the gardens."

" Your mother has more humor in her than I thought. Yet follow me,and you shall see my meaning."

Without waiting to see whetter Kikyo would comply, the woman moved on ahead. Automatically, Kikyo started after, then stopped. _If she wants to go on wild goose chases over half the grounds--_

tHE WOMAN MOVED RAPIDLY, BUT WITH DECEPTIVE SMOOTHNESS. kIKYO FOUND HErself moving in an awkward compromise between running and walking, always a stumbling step or two behind. _She acts as if she knows where she's going, but how can she? She hasn't been here before, or she'd know that there aren't any roses._

At a clumping birch on the south side of the house, the woman turned. With a sigh, Kikyo followed her into the overgrown tangle of honysuckle behind the tress. The drums were almost inaudible here; the bushes must be dense enought to absord most of the sound. They were tall enough to cut off most of the moonlight, too. Kikyo could barely see. Fortunately, her sompanion had slowed down a little-- well even_ she_ must have some trouble with the branches.

The bushes seemed to go on for much too long. The clump in back of the birch was only about about ten feet across; surely, they should have come out onto the lawn by now...

And then the woman stopped and held the last honeysuckle branch aside so Kikyo could step clear. As the branc swung back behind her, Kikyo halted, staring.

In front of her was a rose garden, washed with moonlight and heavy withthe mingled perfume of many flowers. Hedge roses, laden with blssoms, formed a thick wall around the garden. At the single gap in the wall, just in front of Kikyo, two climbing roses wove their way up to the sides of an arched white support to meet in a tangled spray of flower-heavy branches at the top. Through the arch, curving pebble paths gleamed between drifts of rosebushes-- tree roses, floribunda roses, miniature roses, tea roses, wild roses, every kind of roses she had ever seen or heard of, all bloomed mably, impossibly, in the impossible garden.

Kikyo turned. " How..? Where did this come from? Who are you?"

" Ask rather of my roses," the woman said. " But know that I am not required to answer."

" This is impossible."

" So have others said before you. And you are wrong. My garden contains all possibilities, however strange."

" I don't understand."

" I think that soon you will, if you look closely."

( Somewhere )

Sesshomaru- Is it safe yet?

RoZiLuVzSeSho- I think so...

Sesshomaru- Good...She's scarey

RoZiLuVzSeSho- Um...yea...if you think thats scarey you should see her when she wakes up...damn thats scarey

KoolaidSmile- Rozi...I heard that...where are you ! Grrrrr looks around madly

RoZiLuVzSeSho- Damn now she after me...looks scared Sesshy Hide me plzzzz

Sesshomaru- Evily sweet look of course i will...KOOLAID SHE"S RIGHT HERE!

KoolaidSmile-finds them

RoZiLuVzSeSho- looks scared changes into a smirk Yea I'm here but so is Sesshomaru

Sesshomaru- Damn...I didnt think about that ...

RoZiLuVzSeSho- Well while Me and Sesshy are fighting and beening chase...Plsssssss Review and tell me what you think! Flames are aloud...but i really don't need them cause its 105 degrees here

...**_Next thing on Roses By Moonlight_**

_**She sat in a small, cluttered room in an apartment high above a noisy city street-- cluttered because Kagome kept her house bare and Spartan, in the city because Kaogme preferred open country. She combed the gray hair she refused to color because Kagome kept hers a rich brown, and listened to the classical music Kagome hated, and wondered bitterly whether she had ever done anything in all her long life simply because she wanted to end and not because Kagome would have done something else...**_

Well that it for now ...is it good?...huh?...is it?...

I'm not the best writer , im better at making ideas...funny ideas but i thought should have at least one story on my thingy

R&R plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz I promise I won't bit or lick...or kiss...well atless of you're sesshy looks dreamy

Til Later,

**_RoZiLuVzSeSho...Rozi_**


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